Markus “Notch” Persson steps down as lead Minecraft developer

Markus "Notch" Persson has long been the lead developer and face of the game …

Markus "Notch" Persson has stepped down as the lead developer on Minecraft, according to a post on his Tumblr. Though he will still be involved in the game, Jens Bergensten, a developer for the game, will move into the role of lead developer as Persson goes to work on a "new project" with his development studio Mojang.

Persson notes that he and Bergensten have been working on Minecraft together for over a year. Minecraft 1.0 was finally released two weeks ago on November 18 during MineCon, creating a juncture that has apparently allowed Persson to feel comfortable scaling back his role with the game.

Persson will still be a developer for Minecraft, though he notes that he will "now rest for a while" following the leadership transition to Berngensten. When he returns, he will be starting work on a new project, the details of which he does not disclose.

Minecraft has a player base about four million strong, and they've been doing bigger things than ever with the game, including recreations from pop culture touchstones like Legend of Zelda, Star Wars, and Super Mario. May Bergensten enjoy a long and healthy reign.

I'm not sure what's this talk about Minecraft being a bad game, but Notch definitely earned a break, and Jeb has been responsible for a lot of the great new things that started appearing in Minecraft lately. While Notch has wonderful vision of where to take Minecraft next, Jeb's tweeks and fixes added alot of features to the game and made it into a plump bird that's a welcome fest for ages!

I don't know. Personally I feel that the most interesting developments in Minecraft came with version 1.7x and prior versions. Since v1.8, they've just added weird and annoying stuff like the food bar (aka the invincibility bar, because of the weird way it works together with the health bar), endermen, animals that no longer respawn, the whole "end" thing etc.

Jens is obviously a better programmer (the frame rate, lighting effects and stability of the game has improved tremendously in recent versions), but version 1.7.3 is still the most "pure" version of Minecraft imo.

1. a. To impair the condition of, typically in increments.b. As in software development, to introduce error, particularly in established functionality.

2. a. To make dysfunctional; having the character of an amateur intervention in complex mechanical or electronic systems. "When the copier got jammed, Ted notched the whole thing using a ruler and a blow torch instead of calling a technician."b. To cause error due to a lack of comprehensive understanding of interdependent components. "This project is going to notch if the engineering teams don't start working together."

syn: fiddle, meddle, tinker, fsck up all to hell

origin: first known use 2011; from Markus "Notch" Persson, a 21st C. software developer known for introducing errors into previously functional programming routines, often through incremental efforts characterized by trial-and-error and a laissez faire approach to consistent software architecture.

Developer burn-out. I don't blame him. There's only so much time you can spend on a project before you get sick of it and want to move on. Had a feeling something like this was going to happen when he made it very apparent he wanted an "end" to the game (IE: a "win" condition). For such an open game, he could have spent forever just adding more crap to it; it didn't need an "end". But, you knew he was looking to wrap it up and get away from it after the announcements. At least he stuck it out. So many folks start ambitious projects, then when they get lots of attention and it starts turning into grueling work, they just pack it in and walk off (*cough* Noctis V *cough*)

When MC 1.0 came out, I really wished he just said "well, the games out, I'm handing the source code off to the modding community now, but you still have to buy a license from Mojang to play. Have fun expanding on the game as you see fit. Have fun!"

So, apparently people can't accept the fact that what we have now is Minecraft? I don't see what the issue is, if you want to just build stuff without the food limitation, there's a game mode right there for you.

Hopefully some real content will get added. How about some, you know, new stuff to MINE. Terraria just dropped an update that pretty much tripled the amount of game, in the span of a couple months. Minecraft, by comparison, added a taller monster and completely screwed up the world generation in the same timeframe.

I like a lot of the new stuff (enchanting, skills, XP, etc), but the implementation really sucks. Tweak those to make it work well, then give me 10 new ores, 100x more weapons, armor, and tools. I can make the gayest of redstone devices, but there's still no pumps or elevators? Get with it.

Good, Notch and his rougelike ideas were beginning to kill the game. The majority of things that have bene added lately are horrible, enchanting is stupid and the idea to use a cryptic language was moronic, enderman was a horrible idea, The End is pointless and lame, and the hunger system stinks.

I hope the game adds a better fast travel system, and rollback alot of the bad idea that just don't work.

Wow...lots of bitterness/grouchiness/etc. in this thread. I must be playing a different game than you guys.

/goes back to building his dream castle.

This so much. Why all the hate? I'm enjoying the new stuff quite a bit - sure there's stuff that could be updated, but the game is really, really good as is. What Notch helped start/ mostly finish is kind of unprecedented in gaming, growing a one-man game to the level it is. Give him some respect. And maybe he hopes by stepping out of lead, then all the frothy hate that Minecraft fans unfortunately spew sometimes will hit Jens. The internets are mean. I bought several licenses in Alpha and have gotten a host of new features for free since then. I'm satisfied that I got my money's worth. As long as they don't ever take the money and run and leave us without login servers, I'm cool.

I wonder how much Jen's design ethic differs from Notch's? Will he be more amenable to the idea of getting first class modding support in the game (something Notch was at best lukewarm on)? Or maybe even integrating some of the better mods into the core game?

I've always had the impression that Notch is excellent at rapid prototyping, but maybe doesn't have the best large project work ethic. They have lots and lots of regression issues for instance, and a fairly haphazard way of bug testing. I think Minecraft has been larger than he is comfortable with for some time now.

I don't doubt that he's working on something other than Scrolls though. Starting a new project from scratch is the sort of thing that makes Notch the happiest. Or maybe it's just Minecraft 2.0.

wow. I have seen more hate for Notch here, then I have seen in some articles about Bobby Kotick. I don't play minecraft, But I recognize that it does some things extremely well, and its clear that Notch put a huge amount of work into minecraft. The game was always $10, and if you don't care for the RPG elements, you can play with out them. I think that you guys are just being a little bit mean here.

The game is actually $27 and it's not just the 'RPG' elements. It's the fact that there were versions where the bugs were 'cannot open doors' and 'cannot mine using a pick axe'. These are not things that should happen.

I've said my peace in the main Minecraft thread, but I'll add here that I'm glad Notch isn't going to be heading up Minecraft development anymore. He develops without plan, adds buggy features without thought to gameplay implications and without playtesting, removes gameplay elements that he doesn't like, and generally crashes around the Minecraft source code like a retarded bull in a china shop. He's also guilty of not having any idea what "beta" means. Hint: it's not "I'll keep adding features and if things break then lolz."

He's a shitty developer who struck gold with MC, and who has no idea how to plan and manage a project like it's grown into. The less he's involved in its future development, the better.

wow. I have seen more hate for Notch here, then I have seen in some articles about Bobby Kotick. I don't play minecraft, But I recognize that it does some things extremely well, and its clear that Notch put a huge amount of work into minecraft. The game was always $10, and if you don't care for the RPG elements, you can play with out them. I think that you guys are just being a little bit mean here.

To be fair, it is the first time I've ever seen anything less than crotch stroking for Minecraft. I'm sure it is fun for some but the love affair online seems a bit much... But hey, that's my opinion.

Sure is a lot of whining kids around here. Don't like any of the recent changes? Delete your bin directory, restore to an older version (they exist on the internet -- Google is your friend) and refuse the update.

There have been improvements to the biomes -- particularly, the distinct mountain biomes were an improvement. But I think most of the changes to Minecraft since 1.7.3 have been poorly considered and poorly implemented. Adding an "ending" to Minecraft doesn't even make sense, and most of the additions to Minecraft since 1.7.3 do little but interfere with mods.

I was really looking forward to the addition of NPC villages and villagers in Minecraft 1.8, only to find that the NPCs hadn't been added yet, and implementation of villages was terrible. Seriously, how hard would it have been to check for nearly level ground, and then level the ground for each building? Instead, we'd get bizarre scrambled buildings with half the building six blocks above the other. The villagers were worse: they have no AI at all. That would have been subpar for random filler NPCs in games from the 1980s.

There has been an explosion of excellent mods released for Minecraft. In particular, I have enjoyed Millenaire, which adds dynamic villages to the world, including NPCs who interact with their environment, with each other, and with the player, in a convincing way which does much to extend the game in a way consistent with its underlying design.

I've really found it irritating that Mojang has collected colossal revenues, while failing to significantly improve a game that was nominally still in beta, while modmakers have been producing superior content for free; it's as if Notch has no sense of responsibility.

Game? You mean that work simulator that my kids are obsessed with? "Played" it for 3 days before it dawned on me that there really isn't anything to do. Give me a castle to siege or a tower from which to rescue a princess, something. Hopefully it will be fleshed out a bit more into something goal oriented. It's a great concept and my kids could do worse than to spend hours playing with virtual Legos.

wow. I have seen more hate for Notch here, then I have seen in some articles about Bobby Kotick. I don't play minecraft, But I recognize that it does some things extremely well, and its clear that Notch put a huge amount of work into minecraft. The game was always $10, and if you don't care for the RPG elements, you can play with out them. I think that you guys are just being a little bit mean here.

You don't play minecraft and have zero idea of the crap the minecraft community has been through in the past year so you have really no right to lecture people criticising Notch. The fact is that Notch checked out in developing minecraft months ago, and is just now making it offical.

That frustration and the fact that modders have been outdoing notch and mojang can't live up to the quality of some of the mods, is why people here are mean, and many like me are celebrating that he will stop working on the game.

The huge amount of work Notch has put in means nothing, when easily at least half of it has been fixing problems he introduced to the game.

The game was not always being charged $10, and you can't really play the game without the rpg crap and creative mode is not a substitute.

A lot of people hate Notch (and for good reasons) and bitch about Minecraft not being what it should be.

Yet they ignore the fact that no one is forcing them to:a) play the new survival featuresb) fight dragonsetc.

You can just dig and build stuff to your hearts content, like I do

Actually you are "forced" to accept the new food bar and Endermen in survival mode, if you want to enjoy the improved stability and framerate of newer versions (doubly important in SMP).

But I think what really ticks people off is that Notch added this junk (plus the optional enchanting & dragons) while completely failing to add features he promised the community, going all the way back to lanterns for Halloween 2010, as well as the heavily-requested mod support.

wow. I have seen more hate for Notch here, then I have seen in some articles about Bobby Kotick. I don't play minecraft, But I recognize that it does some things extremely well, and its clear that Notch put a huge amount of work into minecraft. The game was always $10, and if you don't care for the RPG elements, you can play with out them. I think that you guys are just being a little bit mean here.

You don't play minecraft and have zero idea of the crap the minecraft community has been through in the past year so you have really no right to lecture people criticising Notch. The fact is that Notch checked out in developing minecraft months ago, and is just now making it offical.

That frustration and the fact that modders have been outdoing notch and mojang can't live up to the quality of some of the mods, is why people here are mean, and many like me are celebrating that he will stop working on the game.

The huge amount of work Notch has put in means nothing, when easily at least half of it has been fixing problems he introduced to the game.

The game was not always being charged $10, and you can't really play the game without the rpg crap and creative mode is not a substitute.

Respectfully, this type of post, while common, is coming from, I'm guessing, the mod community and not the majority of the larger community who actually enjoy the game itself. Not to mention, you have no idea whether the bugs (and they do certainly exist) are things he personally did to spite you, or whether the entire Mojang team is working at it and Notch's shifting of chairs will have absolutely no impact at all on what's being released.

I've lived through the last year+ and yes, certain updates were buggy, but we were always online again quickly and have had 1000s of hours of playtime.

And the next person who references fellatio or 'cock stroking' or some other sexual service to anyone who doesn't pile hate on Notch reveals themselves to be classless teenage trolls who don't deserve to be given anything. Don't be low-class children. Ars isn't (yet) 4chan.

Yah, they stole it from you and you've gotten zero value out of their product.

The entitlement of some people is mind boggling.

That's what they've done to me, and at the new price, too. Tried to purchase gift code for my son. Payment processing "timed out", and while the charges show on my bank, my profile shows no gift code, nor does it show that my account is premium. As of right now, and until they rectify it, they've taken my money and I've gotten exactly zero value from the charges.